Sword Art Online: Another World
by Nanashi Takahiko
Summary: Our twist on the original Sword Art Online novel. In a certain gloomy day in the year 2023, an incident changed two people' lives forever. They are not related, or even know each other, but both are linked by the death of a person that was very close to both of them. Meanwhile, the government's effort to destroy the game inside-out had been progressing. Rated T...maybe will change.


**PROLOGUE**

Mitsui Hospital, Kawagoe City, Japan, June 2023.

Kazumi Sakai almost tipped the vase over when she settled the flowers. The flowers gave a little colour to the monochrome scene in the hospital ward. Sakai slowly sat down by the chair beside the bed. On the bed was Sakai's younger sister. She laid motionless on the bed with a grey bulky helmet on her head. There was a worn off label around of the forehead of the helmet that read 'NerveGear'.

Sakai checked her watch under her wrist and decided that it was time to go. Sakai stood up and gave her little sister a pat on her forehead. It was quiet troublesome for her to do that for the helmet covered most of her face. Sakai slipped her right hand into her pocket, picked up her black katana's bag and put it over her left shoulder, and left the room bowing to the nurse that just opened the door.

A few months ago a game titled 'Sword Art Online', 'SAO' for short, was released. The game was technological revolution and utilized a system called the 'NerveGear', which based on 'FullDive' technology which one used technology to fully immerse one's consciousness in a virtual reality. Basically, it simulated our five senses allowing users to enter another world. Because for some time, puzzles, education related games, or environmental type games were produced for 'NerveGear'. Therefore, 'Sword Art Online' a major excitement to all gamers, and was a massive hit on day one. Only 10,000 copies were printed in the first batch of the game, and online sales sold out within seconds. Hard-core gamers waited in line for days to purchase the first few hard copies from many stores. 'Sword Art Online' officially started server service on 1 PM of November 6, 2022 and subsequently a short while after its release a video made by the game's creator Kayaba Akihiko popped up online, and it immediately obtained infamy when the creator succeeded in trapping 10,000 people in the game, and making it so that death in-game would mean actual death for the players. And Sakai's sister was one of them.

Sakai walked through the hall as she remembered an almost the same, a white, empty hall from fourteen years ago, when her father, a police officer died in an accident while he was on a mission, leaving his wife and two daughters, which one of them was still a toddler. Her mind was completely filled with worries for her little sister, worried for her future. She slowly walked through the hall, almost dragging her feet across the floor, giving the people an impression of a walking dead. Back then, an important part of her heart had been cruelly ripped away from her, totally destroyed, by a total stranger, without any relations to anyone in her family. She never wanted that to happen again. Losing one close person was enough.

Finally dragged herself out of the dreary, long white hall, into the staircase area, Sakai called the lift. She then turned back and looked up into the sky outside the opened window of the hospital. The sky was sombre, covered in grey clouds that could give a lot of people a melancholic feelings. But Sakai was different, she could not feel anything, even the wind blowing from outside which was brushing her clothes. A few water droplets had fallen outside, signifying the beginning of a summer downpour as the lift slowly moved down to her floor. It was a relatively cold day, a rare phenomenon in the middle of summer.

The lift made a satisfying ding when it arrived and the heavy doors slid open. She took her first step in when a shout paralyzed everyone in the hallway. The shout was loud and awfully familiar. Nurses by the counter rushed out of curiosity and worry. Sakai's heart pounded, praying that nurses wouldn't enter her sister's ward. But they did. Sakai whispered to herself her sister's name and ran towards the sound. She quickly ran through the long, white and sterilized corridor of the hospital. The empty hall of the hospital had always bore the ill omen of death. A second louder scream ripped through the air. When she turned the corner the nurses stopped her from entering. She wrestled with them but she was outnumbered. She could only glimpse at the chaos inside. The doctor was shouting commands at the nurses and her sister's fist were clenched. A nurse put a piece of cloth away stained with blood. The doctor was panicking, so was everyone in the room. The doctor took a quick glance at the heart monitor and ripped the helmet off her head out of desperation. Everyone in the room fell into silence. Only the constant tone of heart monitor remained. The nurses finally let Sakai slip in. Everyone was in shock. The doctor, with sweat dropping all over his face, turned to Sakai and affirmed the shocking reality. Sakai's sister, had passed away…

Sakai fell to her knees, tears pooled in her eyes. The cruel truth that Sakai would never accept, that her sister is gone, almost right after her supposed visit. She convinced herself that that was just a nightmare. There was no way that her little sister had died, she had just seen her alive a few minutes ago. Sakai punched the hard, white tiles of the hospital, and sobbed. Sakai was a swordswoman since young, she had learned how to control her emotions, but before the death of her only sibling, her emotions burst into uncontrollable sobs. She tried to contain it by covering her face with her hands but tears continued to rain down.

Sakai cursed herself for being so powerless, even after all these year, she still couldn't protect her young sister. Her sadness was turning to self-pity and bordered to anger. She pitied herself for being so weak and angered on herself that she could only looked at people like her sister, might die any random moment. Her hands began to leave her face and formed solid fists. But when she looked at the grey helmet held by the doctor, she looked at her only way to help players who were trapped likes her sister. In a fit of superficiality, her anger turned into her willpower, her determination, her only faith.


End file.
